80 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Stresemann "^ places toussenellii as a race of tachiro^ but in this 

 respect I feel that he is wrong, and agree with Sclater *° who gives 

 it specific rank. 



Of the other so-called forms of tachiro the four eastern races 

 nyansae^ aceletus, tenebrosus, and orienticola are probably nothing 

 but individual variants of sparsim,fasciatus^ and the type of the An- 

 gola bird henguellensis also seems to be merely a very large example 

 of sparsiTnfasciatus. In fact, be7igueUensis was described by Swann*^ 

 and subsequently synonymized by him with the eastern sparswi- 

 fasciatus. The form tenebrosus described by Lonnberg ^- from 

 Londiani, Kenya Colony, is considered by Van Someren ®^ as a 

 melanistic phase of nyansae^ which, in turn, is not distinct. 



The variation in the barring of the under wing coverts and un- 

 der tail coverts varies and is not of any taxonomic significance in 

 sparsimfasciatus but the under tail coverts seem to be constantly 

 pure white in unduliventer. These feathers have blackish shafts 

 in the specimen at hand. The race unduliventer may be told from 

 the other three forms of tachiro by its generally darker color and bj' 

 the throat being barred with grayish brown. It is most like macros- 

 celides but has the reddish bars on the underparts darker than in 

 the latter. The latter, according to Swann ^* has white under tail 

 coverts as does undkdiventer. However, five adults of macroscelides 

 in the Musuem of Comparative Zoology have these feathers lightly 

 barred with grayish brown. 



Accipiter caManilius, a totally different bird, has been often con- 

 fused with the present species, but the slenderer feet of the former 

 make it easy to distinguish it from the latter. In plumage castanilius 

 and macroscelides are quite similar. 



I have seen the juvenal plumages of three of the four races and find 

 the following differences. In sparsimfasciatus the spots on the 

 under parts are darker and narrower, more elongate than in either 

 tachiro or in macroscelides. They are broadest, least elongate, almost 

 roundly triangular, in macroscelides and intermediate in shape in 

 tachiro. The last two have relatively more barring on the flanks 

 and thighs than does sparsimfasciatus., which, in turn, is more 

 washed with brownish above, has richer brownish margins to the 

 feathers of the crown, occiput, nape, wings, back, and tail than the 

 others. The under tail coverts are pure white in the specimens of 

 macroscelides and sparsimfasciatus., barred with fuscous brown in 

 tachiro. The last is the most abundantl}^ spotted below of the three ; 

 the first, the least so. 



™ Orn. Monatsb., vol. 32, 1924, p. 6. 



80 Syst. Avium Ethlop., 1924, p. 70. 



81 Synopsis of Acclpitres, 1922, p. 34. 



8-' Ark. f. Zool., vol. 11, no. 5, p. 2, 1917. 



"Nov. Zool., 1922, vol. 29, p. 40. 



« Monogr. Bds. Prey, pt. 4, 1925, p. 198. 



